Health Care For America Now

by Ethan Rome

You’ve probably read by now that Judge Vinson did the expected: The judge gave Republican governors and attorneys general what they wanted, a decision that advances the GOP’s extremist agenda to return control of our health care to the insurance companies. This is judicial activism on steroids. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say on the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, and it has corrected such lower-court mistakes when other major laws like Social Security, the minimum wage law and the Voting Rights Act were passed. Two other federal district judges have already upheld the new health care law.
Congress clearly has the authority to regulate the health insurance market, including protecting consumers from insurance industry abuses and reducing costs for families, seniors and businesses. The best way to protect consumers and control costs is to make sure everyone has health insurance, and that’s what the Affordable Care Act does.

With consumers already benefiting from the law, this litigation is really about the Republican Party protecting health insurance company profits at the expense of working families. The Republican politicians who marched in lockstep to bring this suit aren’t really interested in the new law’s individual-responsibility rule. This lawsuit is just another tactic in the Republican Party’s campaign to give our health care back to the insurance companies no matter what the cost.

The American people will not allow the courts or the Congress to bring us back to the time when insurance companies could exclude people because of pre-existing conditions, drop people for getting sick, or let benefit caps force people with serious diseases into bankruptcy.

Washington, DC – Activists from Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nationwide coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, joined 1,500 people Sunday in Rancho Mirage, California, to protest a secret meeting of right-wing billionaires and millionaires with powerful public officials, such as House Republican Leader Eric Cantor. These wealthy activists are using the GOP to advance their corporate agenda, including the repeal of the new health care law, and are raising money to destroy the middle class. The demonstrators, representing dozens of advocacy groups, dramatically highlighted the links between the extremist billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch and the pro-Republican front groups they fund. Last year the brothers and their allies raised $30 million at a single meeting of their group, and they planned to do more of the same this weekend.

“The American Dream is being stolen by big corporations and billionaires like the Koch brothers, who use their wealth to drown out the voices of ordinary Americans and hijack our political system,” said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. “The Kochs and their corporate allies are spending unprecedented sums of money to elect Republicans, including Tea Party extremists, who promote outrageous corporate profits at the expense of families, seniors and small businesses. Their agenda is to deregulate insurance companies, polluters, banks and mortgage companies so they can run roughshod over the middle class.”

Twenty-five peaceful protesters were arrested by baton-carrying police in riot gear. The protesters were led away in handcuffs after blocking the entrance to the Rancho Las Palmas golf resort and spa. No demonstration of this scale has ever been carried out in the Palm Springs area before, local officials said. Protesters, deputized as members of the “People's Center for Disease Control,” occupied the intersection in front of the Rancho Las Palmas to voice opposition to the Kochs’ funding of climate change-denial groups, far-right political candidates and efforts to repeal and defund the new health care law. The arrestees were members of a quarantine squad wearing protective suits for handling hazardous materials, holding banners and laying out yellow police tape marked, “Quarantine the Kochs.”

HCAN joined AFSCME, California Nurses Association, Common Cause, Courage Campaign, Greenpeace, the Other 98%, the Ruckus Society and many other groups to highlight the massive financialsupport provided by the Kochs and their wealthy allies to front groups likeAmericans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. Those groups orchestrated unruly Tea Party outbursts against health reform at congressional town-hall meetings in August 2009 and are among the many corporate front groups that worked to elect pro-repeal Republican candidates to the U.S. Congress. The Kochs have also been providing significant funding to right-wing think tanks that generate an endless stream of corporate propaganda to bolster public policies that inflict harm on working families and the U.S. economy.

Past secret meetings of the Koch Brothers’ billionaire friends included secret sessions with Fox News pundits, Republican members of Congress and conservative Supreme Court justices. Several hundred extremist elites were invited to this weekend’s event, including many first-time attendees.

One of the visual highlights of the weekend was the flight on Friday of a Greenpeace blimp bearing the message “Koch Brothers Dirty Money” above the resort. For more photos of the protest, click here.

Coalition Decries ‘Judicial Activism on Steroids’

Washington, DC – Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nationwide coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling today in a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act:

“Judge Vinson gave Republican governors and attorneys general what they wanted, a decision that advances the GOP’s extremist agenda to return control of our health care to the insurance companies. This is judicial activism on steroids. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say on the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, and it has corrected such lower-court mistakes when other major laws like Social Security, the minimum wage law and the Voting Rights Act were passed. Two other federal district judges have already upheld the new health care law.

“Congress clearly has the authority to regulate the health insurance market, including protectingconsumers from insurance industry abuses and reducing costs for families, seniors and businesses. The best way to protect consumers and control costs is to make sure everyone has health insurance, and that’s what the Affordable Care Act does.

“With consumers already benefiting from the law, this litigation is really about the Republican Party protecting health insurance company profits at the expense of workingfamilies. The Republican politicians who marched in lockstep to bring this suit aren’t really interested in the new law’s individual-responsibility rule. This lawsuit is just another tactic in the Republican Party’s campaign to give our health care back to the insurance companies no matter what the cost.

“The American people will not allow the courts or the Congress to bring us back to the time when insurance companies could exclude people because of pre-existing conditions,drop people for getting sick, or let benefit caps force people with serious diseases into bankruptcy.”

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By devoting just two minutes to health care reform in his State of the Union address — and not mentioning it until half way through the remarks — President Obama was signaling Americans that he believes the health reform debate is over, that Republicans would be wasting precious time by "refighting the battles of the last two years."

While noting that "anything can be improved" and that he would welcome ideas to improve the bill he signed into law last March, Obama offered only two subjects that might warrant renewed attention — and one of those is sure to set off alarms among consumer advocates and trial lawyers, though changes seem unlikely.

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If you want to know how things really get done in Washington — or don't get done, depending on the desires of America's corporate executives — all you have to do is read a couple of paragraphs in a January 23 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Reporter Joe DiStefano quotes a vice president at APCO Worldwide — one of DC's most powerful and influential PR firms — in response to questions about my book, Deadly Spin. Throughout the book, I disclose the previously secretive work APCO did for the health insurance industry to manipulate public opinion on health care reform, in part by trying to scare people away from a movie, Michael Moore's 2007 documentary "Sicko".

The surprising gem in the Inquirer piece was that APCO VP Bill Pierce essentially agreed with me. He acknowledged that interest-funded pressure groups "are all over the place" in Washington. "That's how everybody exists here," Pierce said.

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Below are great reports from HCAN State Partners' anti-repeal events that took place January 18th and 19th leading up to the vote in congress.  HCAN's state partners never fail to impress.  These activities are generating a buzz and making headlines all over the place.  Thanks to everyone for organizing these events on short notice and despite inconvenience and delay.  Clips from events that took place in the following states are included below: Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

CONNECTICUT

Below is a photo from our event in Connecticut organized by HCAN Partner Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG)

FLORIDA

Orlando–Report from HCAN Partner Organize Now

Orlando event targeting Webster had nearly 30 people in attendance from Organize Now, AFSCME, FLARA, FL Chain, JWJ, OFA and more. Fox 35 and Channel 13 both attended the event in front of the local Chamber of Commerce. Speakers included 2 folks who had benefited from health care reform and organizational speakers. At the end of the press conference everyone started calling Webster's office. His office was clearly concerned about the immediate calls and asked folks why they were all calling at once-was it on tv or an email or radio. Calls continued throughout the day.

Tampa-Report from HCAN Partner FCAN

Event coverage here: The Ledger: Residents Ask Ross to Support Health Care

MAINE

Report from HCAN Partner Maine People's Alliance

We had a good turnout in the snow to rally in support of the Affordable Care Act. The “Rally to Save Healthcare” asked our new Governor and Attorney General to stop wasting our time and money by signing on to repeal our care, thanking  Representatives Pingree and Michaud for their support of the ACA, and asking our state legislature to work towards implementation that will cover the most Maine people possible.

Watch video here: Rally to Save health Care

Media Coverage so far:

Maine Health Reform Supporters Rally Against Repeal

Non-profits rally in favor of health care law

AP: Maine rally held to support nat'l health care law

MICHIGAN

Report from Michigan Citizen Action

Around 40 people prayed outside of Congressman Upton's office.  10 personal letters delivered to Ed Sackely, District Director.  Because of new security, letters and people met with Ed one-by-one.  Kalamazoo Gazette article in the link below.  Linda did WMUK interview from 7:33 - 7:40.

Watch video from the event here

Health-care reform supporters hold vigil outside U.S. Rep. Fred Upton's office on eve of House vote

MINNESOTA

Report from HCAN Partner Take Action Minnesota

Our MOC letter attached and we placed the following Op-Ed in the press today, by TakeAction board member. Thank you Liz Doyle

MinnPost- Republicans have it backwards on the jobs effect of health-care reform

NEVADA

Report from HCAN Partner PLAN

The Heckuva Deal Donut Hole bake sale went well. Several volunteers from PLAN, Americans United, and our coalition partners spoke to over 150 senior citizens at the Flamingo Senior Center in Joe Heck’s district (pic attached). Not one senior wanted to buy back their donut hole for $250 but we did give away 6 dozen donut holes along with handouts on ACA repeal targeted to seniors. We also logged 42 calls to Heck’s office made through the cell phones we brought to the event.

Additionally, we sent out action alerts statewide as did several of our coalition partners (Americans United, ProgressNow, and the SEIU) and will continue phone banking and mobilizations today.

The press was only radio phoned-in interview and mention on noon hour news (waiting for clips to become available), with a couple of outlets interested in doing a follow up story after the vote happens.

NORTH DAKOTA

Report from HCAN Partner NDPeople.org

State Capitol news conference challenging new Rep. Rick Berg on the repeal of ACA yesterday. Speakers did great! Media were the two TV stations (NBC and CBS) and North Dakota Public Radio. The reporter, from Forum Communications which has four daily papers and a bunch of TV stations, asked for the news release.

OHIO

Report from HCAN Partner Progress Ohio

Marianne Steger, from AFSCME Ohio Council 8 speaks to Steve Cheek, Staff Assistant, for Congressman Steve Stivers in the lobby of his district office.

Ohio Health Care Coalition Deliver Petitions To Ohio Congressional District Offices

ProgressOhio Community Blog:

By Denise Gastesi on January 19, 2011 9:49

Ohio Consumers Ask Congressmen Stivers To Side With Hard-Working Families, Not Big Insurance Companies

Tuesday, a delegation of leaders from various groups which are part of an Ohio Coalition of Health Care For America Now (HCAN), and constituents which led the national fight to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA), delivered petitions to Congressman Stivers district office in Columbus to discuss his position on repealing the new law, which protects consumers from the worst insurance company abuses.

A Health Care Reform Repeal Bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would eliminate provisions of the new law that are already benefiting consumers in the 15th Congressional District, effectively taking away no-cost preventive care for 77,000 seniors in Medicare, and 65,500 young adults would lose their insurance coverage through their parents' health plans sometimes just after they finish school and as they are looking for a job.

With the Health Care Repeal bill expected to be voted on in Congress this week, simular events are being held in Ohio at other congressional district offices. Constituents delivered petitions to Speaker Boehner's office in West Chester Tuesday and groups are organizing constuents to meet at Fountain Square today to deliver petitions to Rep. Steve Chabot's Office in Cincinnati today.

Online petitions were also sent to Rep. Renacci's office in the 16th Congressional District as well as to Rep. Johnson in OH-8.

OCHC Statehouse Press Conference 1-19-2011

Some of the stories in the press conference below, came from the ProgressOhio e-mail that was sent out asking for health care stories.

OREGON

Report from HCAN Partner Oregon Action

We had a great action today in Medford, OR.  We had 40 folks at the Medford Library for a press/ community education rally.  Speaker included leaders from SEIU, Rev Bill McDonald from the faith community and Oregon Action and 3 stories from people effected by repeal.  There were 3 tv stations ( KOBI, KTVL and KDRV).  Additionally we had a story in the Mail Tribune announcing the event yesterday Jan 18.  There we two pre stories on KOBI which included a wonderful 5 minute interview with Michelle Glass, young Oregon Action leader. Everyone signed a letter to Rep Greg Walden and we announced our next HCAN meeting for Feb 22.

We had a lot of spirit and willingness to continue to be an organized force for health care progress.

PENNSYLVANIA

From HCAN partners PUP, Action United and Penn Action

Coverage from Tuesday's PA Events:

Post Gazette: Vote expected today on health care repeal

The Tribune-Democrat: Critz, Shuster split on health care

Public News Service: PA Mom Testifies about Healthcare Reform in D.C. Today

Lebanon Event

Here is the report from the event in Lebanon. We had about 20 people attend. We had Jake Long regional co director from the Harrisburg Labor Council Speak, Rev Dan Donomoyer and Bobbie Warshaw a Medicaid recipient talked about the benefits she received. There was also TV there and we are still looking for the link.

Lebanon Daily News - Ralliers: No to health care repeal

Scranton, PA Event

Lackawanna County Courthouse, Scranton PA

In addition to these events, Penn Action recruited Stacie Ritter, a woman with twins who have a pre-existing condition, to come to DC and be part of Speaker Pelosi's hearing to highlight people impacted by ACA repeal.  Stacie got great coverage all over the country including the story below.

Public News Service-PA

January 18, 2011

PA Mom Testifies about Healthcare Reform in D.C. Today

LANCASTER, Penn. - A Pennsylvania woman whose family was driven to bankruptcy after her twin four-year-old daughters were diagnosed with leukemia, is testifying on Capitol Hill today (Tuesday). Staci Ritter says thw girls' medical treatment has been very costly, and the bills piled up when an insurance company refused to pay for some of it.

As the U.S. House of Representatives gears up to vote on whether to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, Ritter's message to lawmakers is that needs to remain intact – to protect families like hers, who are dealing with catastrophic illnesses.

"I'm afraid that if they repeal the mandate, that will enable insurers to be able to deny children – like mine, who have pre-existing conditions – health care."

Ritter says the family's situation became more serious after her husband's company signed on with a new insurance carrier, and problems emerged with their daughters' coverage.

"My children are expensive. Anybody with a pre-existing condition is a liability, they'll openly admit it – so, what do we do to protect these people?"

Ritter says she's fearful of a repeal of health care reform, not just because of the impact it could have on her daughters today.

"Each time they pick away at it, they take away something that's protecting my children and their future; protecting them from discrimination, protecting them from being able to afford insurance to begin with."

She will testify before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, part of the House Democratic Caucus. Her story turns out better than some, but Ritter says that's only because she went after the insurance company publicly and was able to come to a settlement. Recently, several lawmakers who favor repealing the Affordable Care Act, including new House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), released a report entitled "ObamaCare: Budget Busting, Job-Killing Health Care Law."

TENNESSEE

Report Back from Tennessee Citizen Action

State Capitol Rally To Fight Repeal Of Health Care Reform (WTVF News channel 5)

Middle Tenn. voices heard on health care repeal (WKRN News 2)

Tennessee Report: TNCA Urges Abandonment of Federal Health Care Law Repeal & Resistance Efforts

Tennessee Report: Reform v. Repeal; Mary & Co v. Mae & Co

Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee health care reform backers cite benefits - Urge lawmakers to leave federal plan alone

WASHINGTON

Report from WA MSA

Coverage of Main Street Alliance members in the Vancouver Columbian yesterday.

Health care debate regains center stage - Herrera Beutler supports GOP repeal push

By Howard Buck Columbian Staff Reporter

Originally published January 18, 2011 at 4:23 p.m., updated January 18, 2011 at 7:25 p.m.

Photo by Steven Lane

WEST VIRGINIA

Report from West Virginia Citizen Action Group

WVCAG and partners held a 2PM press conference at the state capitol ahead of the vote to repeal ACA. Press covering the event were: TV 13 (CBS); WV News Service (radio); Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail (print)

Speakers were:

Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action Group
Perry Bryant, WV for Affordable Health Care
WV Senator Dr. Ron Stollings, Chair HHR Committee
WV Senator Dr. Dan Foster, member HHR Committee
Renate Pore, WV Center On Budget & Policy

WISCONSIN

Report from HCAN Partner Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Press from "No Repeal" action at Rep. Paul Ryan's office, 1/18:

WDJT TV 58 (CBS) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Wisconsin Joins Health Care Reform Fight

WISN TV 12 (ABC) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Interview with Brian Rothgery on repeal action at Paul Ryan's office (no link available)

WTMJ TV 4 (NBC) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Health Care Rally Outside Rep. Ryan's Office

Wisconsin Radio Network (January 18,  2011) Rallying against repeal

WRJN Radio 1400 AM Racine (January 18, 2011) 4:05 PM news break (podcast)

Racine Journal-Times (January 18, 2011) Protest outside Paul Ryan's office

Photos from Racine Journal Times picked up by AP:

Atlanta Journal Constitution (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

Deseret News (Salt Lake City) (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

The Republic (Columbus, IN) (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

Christian Science Monitor (January 18,  2011) Health-care reform: How Democrats plan to crash House GOP's repeal party

Arizona Daily Star (January 18, 2011) Bid to repeal health law goes on, but with civil tone

News Times (Danbury, CT) (January 18, 2011)

MySanAntonio.com (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

WASHINGTON, DC

Rally & Visibility Outside the Capitol yesterday.

Stacie Ritter's story was told in about 60 television markets across the country yesterday thanks mostly to NBC affiliates that picked up a Washington report on the event.

Stacie and her daughters are shown above testifying that repeal would mean her daughters would be at risk of losing their health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Several stations ran the story more than once.

Industry Leader UnitedHealth’s 21% Profit Surge Shows What the Fight Is About

Just one day after the Republican Party voted to take away benefits from consumers and revive the insurance companies’ stranglehold on health care, industry leader UnitedHealth Group said its full-year profit jumped 21% to $4.6 billion in 2010. “Nothing demonstrates more clearly why the Republicans are so bent on undermining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and why the House voted yesterday to repeal it,” said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the 1,000-member coalition that led the fight for the new health care law. Analysts are expecting announcements of strong profit growth from other health insurance companies in the next few weeks.

“The Republicans’ reckless repeal plan will put insurance companies back in charge of our health care, restore the ‘anything-goes’ premium-rate hikes that are crushing consumers and businesses and raise the federal budget deficit to heights never before seen,” Rome said. “The health insurance industry is getting what it paid for in the 2010 elections – a free hand to do anything to make obscene profits. The GOP’s repeal vote was about letting the insurance companies off the hook and taking away important consumer benefits that matter to real people, like the ban on denying care to people with pre-existing conditions, big savings on drug costs for seniors and new caps on how much of each premium dollar goes to overhead and profits.”

UnitedHealth, a bellwether for the industry, this morning reported $4.6 billion in profit last year, up from $3.8 billion the year before. Last year UnitedHealth spent 80.6 percent of its premium revenue on actual medical care, a far lower ratethan in 2009. At the same time, insurers have been pursuing huge rate increases across the nation.

Wall Street knows that the ACA is likely to curb profits at many insurance companies in 2011, so the industry is especially interested in repealing new rules that cap how much premium money insurers may use for executive pay, profits and administration. That would explain why Congressman John Carter (R-Tex.), the Republican conference secretary, has pledged to block those rules.

Empowered by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, corporate-backed groups intent on the repeal of the health care law spent enormous sums to elect pro-repeal candidates, according to a new study by People for the American Way. The industry also fought the law by funneling $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year and spent more than $769 million on lobbyists in the past four years. It isn’t known yet how much insurers gave to other major front groups. The Republicans have also hired former insurance industry lobbyists into key staff roles, including Julie Goon, a former lobbyist with the industry’s trade group, in a senior role with the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Health Care for America Now launched a multifaceted counterattack against the Republican repeal plan this week that included:

· 42 events in 23 states, garnering significantmedia coverage. Click here for photos and clips.

· Nearly 20,000 constituent phone calls to House Republicans’ offices.

· An online anti-repeal advertising campaign that totaled more than 2.3 million impressions.

· Coverage by 60 television stations of HCAN advocate Stacie Ritter’s story about fighting for coverage for her twin daughters after their cancer treatment.

· Publication by Ethan Rome of a column in Huffington Post that included a graphic comparison of the ACA and repeal.

· An anti-repeal demonstration on Capitol Hill before the vote on Wednesday.

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of healthreform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

During the health care debate in 2009 and 2010, a serious issue emerged — the number of pages in congressional bills. I'm not kidding. The Republicans wanted short bills, and the health care reform bill was way, way too long (proving that it did too much and would end civilization as we know it). There was outrage across the country. Angry opponents of reform went to congressional town hall meetings brandishing huge stacks of paper. Then Minority Leader Boehner, foreshadowing his leadership priorities today, used a nationally televised address to condemn the length of the health care bill three times in as many minutes.

The extremists went wild. Rumors swept across the land. Some Tea Party types claimed the bill was 10,000 pages. Slate called the explosive stack-of-paper obsession "peculiar." Ultimately, the New York Times set the record straight: "In the original version," the Times said, "H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate on Dec. 24, 2009, ran to some 2,400 pages, although with a very large font, triple spacing and huge left and right margins." The newspaper went on to explain that, "With normal margins the document probably would shrink to about 500 pages or so." Which meant the bill was not really that long when compared to other major bills, such as the financial reform law and past budget deals.

Advocates of health care reform who are fearful — or hopeful, as the case may be — that Republicans will be able to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") need to understand that the GOP has no real intention of repealing it.

The rhetoric of repeal is just a smoke screen to obscure the real objective of the “repeal and replace” caucus: to preserve the sections of the law that big insurance and its business allies like and strip out the regulations and consumer protections they don’t like.

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At a moment when we need to tone down the discourse in our politics, why have a purely symbolic debate over health care repeal in the U.S. House of Representatives? The debate may take us back to the worst days of the health care discussion, when swastikas were commonplace at anti-reform rallies, and some talk radio and TV turned into hate radio and TV. Will opponents talk about "death panels," or "killing grandma?" Will people carry signs that say "bury Obamacare with Kennedy" or wear t-shirts that say, "We came unarmed (this time)" when they rally outside the Capitol? Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine has already suggested that the Republicans retitle their bill, which is now named "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Act." According to Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post the phrase "job-killing" is part of the official message of the repeal movement, as reflected in the dramatic and consistent increase in its use lately.

Catholics United, the organization I direct, saw firsthand just how the tenor of the health care debate led to political violence when we chose to stand by members of Congress who voted for reform. Two of these members, Tom Perriello (VA-5) and Steve Driehaus (OH-1), made national headlines when extreme rhetoric and violent actions were used against them. Following the health care vote, then-Minority Leader John Boehner called Driehaus "a dead man," and promised that "Catholics will run him out of town." The congressman was subsequently the target of death threats. Things were worse in Virginia, where Tea Party activists published Perriello's brother's home address on the web (they mistakenly thought the house belonged to Perriello himself). Someone showed up and cut the gas line.